Customer Reviews

To the Edge of the Sky

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As a Chinese national, the suffering exposed in the story of Anhua Gao is particularly felt to my bones, but the courage demonstrated to fight for life is equally admirable. Apallingly true and spellbound, To the Edge of the Sky is a good read for China recent history and I would recommend to everyone who wants to know a real China from 1950s to 1990s.

This is an amazing storey of one person's courage and determination to survive in a world where everything is upside down. The book is perfect for people who enjoy a powerful emotional experience, and also for those with an interest in the turmoil of the recent history of China. I'm a 32 year old male student of Asian studies, and I have to admit that this storey and the way it is told turned me into a little boy, falling for its author and sometimes on the verge of tears. A great read for all!

I have read many memoirs about life in China during the Cultural Revolution and the Great Leap Forward, but I found this one to be among the very best I've read. The author writes from the heart, and includes so many fascinating and sometimes horrifying details. I found most interesting watching her own inner transformation, from a model child who believed all she was told about Mao and the Chinese government, to an adult who had the courage to defy her unjust accusers without fear. I pray for her continued happiness in England.

This is an amazing story of human courage,love and devotion in the face of inhumanity. I picked up the book and couldn't stop reading until it was finished. The story of China and her life is being told through the eyes of a child right to her adult life. I also leart alot about Chinese history and the people reponsible for it and mistakes that sometimes only human can make. In short AnHua has captured the mood and feelings of the Chinese people through a totally human perspective. Great Book.

I honestly loved this book. Not only is it gramatically very well written but the series of events are perfectly described. Its not my typical type of book. I picked it up by mistake while on holiday in (the country at the edge of the sky), from then on I've been fascinated by reading such biographies to experience, if only mentally, the type of pain women across the world have had to endure.
It makes it easier to strive towards a better tomorrow.

This book may go out of print, but at least it will have been written by someone who was a local and had a sense of what was/ is really happening in China. Many of the citizens here are very stubbornly determined to not admit that the Great Famine happened. And the CCP is very big on overly optimistic historical revisionism.

This is worth the read because it shows that at least one person saw through the smoke-and-mirrors tricks of the government. And I don't know if she intentionally described the mood of the country as it exists to this day, but that is, in fact, what she has done.

Note during the read that the realization of the folly of her beliefs did not come to her until much later in her life, after she had believed everything that she was told.

Sad to say that she was the one that looked behind the curtain for the 1,000 that will not.

For someone who wants an understanding of the contemporary Chinese people, I strongly recommend this book.

Many books have been written about the Cultural Revolution, but this one is the best I've read. It's hard to imagine all that this woman endured and still prevailed. Was in tears after the last page.

This book was extremely compelling. I could not put it down! It told an amazing story of what it was like to live in China during the Communist regime and to experience such turmoil. It is a wonderful story of survival. It was a very interesting way to learn a little Chinese history. I salute the author for her command of the English language to be able to write such a compelling memoir.

I stumbled across it in a bookstore, finished it all in two visits. I couldn't hold back my tears, and cried like a baby in the midst of the crowd.

It is still unbelievable to me that one could endure so much yet be so resilient in one's life. I am not unfamiliar of political/social trauma China has gone through, as a native myself. Yet this is a story that hits the chord.

A complete education to me (aged 25) and should be read in schools and colleges everywhere. It offers so much to those who read it.. communicative, readable, interesting, educational and a powerful example, a lesson not a reminder to many of us.